Module Directory

This module will introduce students to a wide range of philosophical questions that are raised by everyday medical practice and recent developments in biomedical science. It will show how the resources of moral philosophy and philosophy more widely can help us to develop a better understanding of these questions, and enable us to critically assess the ways in which these issues are currently dealt with. The exact range of topics addressed will vary from year to year.

The module will explore the following issues: the moral significance of health and the just allocation of medical resource (between patients and on the level of healthcare budgets; using the current pandemic as one of the case studies); the ethics of reproduction (e.g. surrogate mothering and sex selection), and the ethics of enhancement. Finally, this module will familiarise students with Foucault's notion of "biopolitics" and racism, to explore their relevance for developing a critical understanding of the wider context in which medical-ethical questions arise.

The aims of this module are:

• To learn about why and how theories of justice bear on the issue of health.


• To be aware of, and become able to critically reflect on, the ethical issues raised by reproductive medicine.


• To become able to identify and critically reflect on the philosophical, ethical and political issues raised by recent advances in life sciences/bioengineering.

By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to:

1. Identify the ethical and philosophical issues raised by a selection of medical matters.


2. Explain the debates concerning these issues.


3. Critically assess the merits of the conflicting arguments.

Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)

By the end of this module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:

1. Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.


2. Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.


3. Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.


4. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.


5. Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.


6. Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.


7. Think 'laterally' and creatively - see interesting connections and possibilities and present these clearly rather than as vague hunches.


8. Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position if shown wrong.


9. Think critically and constructively.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour combined lecture and seminar per week.
• One 1-hour class per week.

There will also be a Reading Week.